It is highly desirable for containers designed for shipping of food such as fresh fruit, meat, vegetables, fish and other perishables to keep the food products fresh and free from damage and spoilage. In many instances, cardboard boxes are used to ship food products therein and, due to their construction and materials, are only intended for one time use. To help keep the food fresh, large amounts of ice are often packed in the boxes. Where the box containers are exposed to extreme conditions such as high temperatures or where the containers are left sitting for long periods of time at airports or travel for several days by sea, the melting of the ice can ruin the food by penetrating and soaking into the food and leaving a mush-like food product. Further, the cardboard boxes generally have to be thrown out after unpacking food therefrom, and thus do not provide the economic efficiencies that a multi-use container would provide.
Plastic shipping containers have been proposed for food products as an alternative to cardboard boxes, see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,263. However, while the container of the '263 is an improvement over cardboard boxes, it still suffers from problems relating to the fact that it is essentially open to the exterior ambient environment which can be problematic as often times during storage and shipping harsh ambient conditions can be present. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a container for storage and shipping of perishable items that can be sealed from the exterior environment. Further, it would be advantageous if the atmosphere in the interior of the container could be closely regulated to maintain the freshness of the perishable items contained therein.